Renewable Energy and Circular Economy: Application of Life Cycle Costing to Building Integrated Solar Energy Systems in Singapore

2020 ◽  
pp. 201-218
Author(s):  
Rashmi Anoop Patil ◽  
Veronika Shabunko ◽  
Seeram Ramakrishna
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Solar Energy ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Energy Systems ◽  
Life Cycle Costing

scholarly journals Sustainability Assessment with Integrated Circular Economy Principles: A Toy Case Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 3856
Author(s):  
Rebeka Kovačič Lukman ◽  
Vasja Omahne ◽  
Damjan Krajnc
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Product Life Cycle ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Social Impacts ◽  
Life Cycle Costing ◽  
Social Life Cycle Assessment

When considering the sustainability of production processes, research studies usually emphasise environmental impacts and do not adequately address economic and social impacts. Toy production is no exception when it comes to assessing sustainability. Previous research on toys has focused solely on assessing environmental aspects and neglected social and economic aspects. This paper presents a sustainability assessment of a toy using environmental life cycle assessment, life cycle costing, and social life cycle assessment. We conducted an inventory analysis and sustainability impact assessment of the toy to identify the hotspots of the system. The main environmental impacts are eutrophication, followed by terrestrial eco-toxicity, acidification, and global warming. The life cycle costing approach examined the economic aspect of the proposed design options for toys, while the social assessment of the alternative designs revealed social impacts along the product life cycle. In addition, different options based on the principles of the circular economy were analysed and proposed in terms of substitution of materials and shortening of transport distances for the toy studied.

Assessing the Grip of Solar Energy Systems on Environmental Sustainability-A Review

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shreya Srivastava ◽  
Ajit Behera ◽  
Ramakrishna Biswal
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Solar Energy ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Energy Systems ◽  
Social Needs ◽  
Annual Growth Rate ◽  
Future Technology ◽  
Sustainable Environment ◽  
Rapid Result ◽  
Energy Production System

: A sustainable energy production system fulfills its goal while being environmentally, socially, and technically sound. The intermittent availability and viability of renewable energy makes this vision a gradual and long-suffering process. In the rapid result-oriented economy, concerns regarding the environment are treated with desperate solutions that may add fuel to the fire. Although substantial research has been going on in the development of emerging technologies and refinement of established systems, we need to be reminded of the larger goal in mind: a benign and sustainable environment. Closing a door on a problem and not opening several new ones is what we must yearn to achieve. Renewable energy systems and their utility may unintentionally harm a different subset of the ecosystem. Solar energy systems are a more recent candidate with a high annual growth rate and thus, are still in the nascent stage to realise the bruised potential of the technology. By 2050, 60 million tons of solar waste will be produced if it is not resolved efficiently. To achieve environmental sustainability, it is imperative to work towards recycling redundant systems, establishing producer responsibility, fulfilling social needs and optimising future technology. By integrating aspects of the research on solar energy systems, their environmental risks, and their potential to create a sustainable ecosystem, this review article attempts to cater to environmental decision making and direct the eventual research and analysis towards their original unified objective.

scholarly journals Life Cycle Analysis of a Geothermal Power Plant: Comparison of the Environmental Performance with Other Renewable Energy Systems

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 2786 ◽  
Author(s):  
Riccardo Basosi ◽  
Roberto Bonciani ◽  
Dario Frosali ◽  
Giampaolo Manfrida ◽  
Maria Laura Parisi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Power Plant ◽  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Life Cycle Analysis ◽  
Energy Systems ◽  
Renewable Energy Systems ◽  
Geothermal Power Plant ◽  
A Value ◽  
Geothermal Power

A life cycle analysis was performed for the assessment of the environmental performances of three existing Italian power plants of comparable nominal power operating with different sources of renewable energy: Geothermal, solar, and wind. Primary data were used for building the life cycle inventories. The results are characterized by employing a wide portfolio of environmental indicators employing the ReCiPe 2016 and the ILCD 2011 Midpoint+ methods; normalization and weighting are also applied using the ReCiPe 2016 method at the endpoint level. The midpoint results demonstrate a good eco-profile of the geothermal power plant compared to other renewable energy systems and a definite step forward over the performance of the national energy mix. The Eco-Point single score calculation showed that wind energy is the best technology with a value of 0.0012 Eco-points/kWh, a result in line with previously documented life cycle analysis studies. Nevertheless, the geothermal power plant achieved a value of 0.0177 Eco-points/kWh which is close to that calculated for the photovoltaic plant (0.0087 Eco-points/kWh) and much lower than the national energy mix one (0.1240 Eco-points/kWh). Also, a scenario analysis allowed for a critical discussion about potential improvements to the environmental performance of the geothermal power plant.

scholarly journals Optimizing the selection of sustainability measures to minimize life-cycle cost of existing buildings

2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moatassem Abdallah ◽  
Khaled El-Rayes ◽  
Liang Liu
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Optimization Model ◽  
Life Cycle Cost ◽  
Energy Systems ◽  
The United States ◽  
Existing Buildings ◽  
Renewable Energy Systems ◽  
Building Life Cycle ◽  
Selection Of

Buildings have significant impacts on the environment and economy as they were reported by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development in 2009 to account for 40% of the global energy consumption. Building owners are increasingly seeking to integrate sustainability and green measures in their buildings to minimize energy and water consumption as well as life-cycle cost. Due to the large number of feasiblecombinations of sustainability measures, decision makers are often faced with a challenging task that requires them to identify an optimal set of upgrade measures to minimize the building life-cycle cost. This paper presents a model for optimizing the selection of building upgrade measures to minimize the life-cycle cost of existing buildings while complying with owner-specified requirements for building operational performance and budget constraints. The optimization model accounts for initial upgrade cost, operational cost and saving, escalation in utility costs, maintenance cost, replacement cost, and salvage value of building fixtures and equipment, and renewable energy systems. A case study of a rest area building in the state of Illinois in the United States was analyzed to illustrate the unique capabilities of the developed optimization model. The main findings of this analysis illustrate the capabilities of the model in identifying optimal building upgrade measures to achieve the highest savings of building life-cycle cost within a user-specified upgrade budget; and generating practical and detailed recommendations on replacing building fixtures and equipment and installing renewable energy systems.

scholarly journals Solar Photovoltaic System in India: Challenges and Barriers

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (VI) ◽  
pp. 1060-1063
Author(s):  
Pushpendra Arya
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Solar Energy ◽  
Energy Systems ◽  
Clean Energy ◽  
Photovoltaic System ◽  
Energy Sources ◽  
Solar Photovoltaic ◽  
Indian Government ◽  
Solar Photovoltaic System ◽  
Main Component

In today’s world we are going towards the major share of renewable energy to reduce the effect Green House Gases (GHG) in the atmosphere. The limitation of energy sources which produces clean energy, the rise in the pollution in the environment, and programs initiated by the Indian Government have encouraged lots of open field researches on Solar Photovoltaic Systems or Solar Energy Systems. As producing the clean and renewable energy is main component of energy sector, solar photovoltaic could be considered as an alternative in various regions. Although Solar Photovoltaic does have different advantages and can be used for various purposes, but also there are several challenges for it. This paper took a whole overview of the advantages and uses of Solar Photovoltaic and barriers in their adaptation/opportunities.

scholarly journals Assessment of sustainability of different renewable energy systems based on life cycle exergy analysis

Tehnika ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 76 (5) ◽  
pp. 595-602
Author(s):  
Branislav Petrović ◽  
Milan Gojak
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Exergy Analysis ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Energy Systems ◽  
Electrical Energy ◽  
Energy System ◽  
Renewable Energy Resources ◽  
System Sustainability

The sustainable development of energy systems does not only involve the use of renewable energy resources but the increase in their efficiency as well, enabling society to maximise the benefits of their consumption. The production of electrical energy from clean and renewable sources contributes to lowered fossil fuel exploitation and the reduction of its damaging effect on the environment. This is a way to reach the global target of sustainable development - striking a balance between resource consumption and the achievable natural cycle regeneration. Environmental protection is in the focus of attention. Namely, when energy system sustainability is assessed, in addition to the ecological sustainability assessment (based on life cycle analysis - LCA), attention should be paid to the decrease in energy quality in energy processes (exergy loss). This paper presents the thermodynamic approach to energy system sustainability assessment by applying life cycle exergy analysis (LCEA). The key issue is the assessment of systems which use sustainable energy sources: the wind turbine and the stand-alone photovoltaic solar system.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document